During numerous medical procedures, verbal feedback from the patient is often critical to the success of the operation. The patient's own nervous feedback system is often preferred over even the most complex monitoring technology. For example, in a procedure involving the treatment of migraine headaches, a lead electrode is inserted into the back of a patient's head to stimulate the occipital nerves. The patient, lying face down, is then required to give verbal feedback regarding the location of the paresthesia experienced from the stimulation. The lead can then be adjusted to stimulate different areas on or around the nerves until the patient reports successful stimulation. However, there is significant difficulty in comprehending the patient's speech while in this state.
Regarding communication in the operating room, the application of wireless technology has long been a topic of contention within the medical and communications fields, due to concerns about electromagnetic interference with medical equipment. For example, there has been particular concern among medical professionals about the electromagnetic signal from cell phones interfering with vital medical equipment such as heart pacemakers. Notably, however, a 2006 study of 8,296 tests runs involving variable cell phone broadcasters and pacemakers found that no interference occurred beyond 8.7 inches of the cell phones' position relative to the pacemakers, even with the oldest phone models running at their highest power. The study also reported 6 inches as the outside boundary of interference “for the overwhelming majority of pacemakers which exhibited interaction,” with modern CDMA and PCS 1900 standard phones exhibiting only 2.8% and 0.6% interference rates, respectively, even within that distance. (Reference: Electromagnetic compatibility study of the in-vitro interaction of wireless phones with cardiac pacemakers, Schlegel, R. E., Grant, F. H., Raman, S., Reynolds, D., “Biomedical Instrumentation and Technology,” 32(6):645-55, November-December 1998) Continuing advances in electromagnetic shielding standards as well as in low-power high-frequency wireless technology should eliminate interference incidents entirely in the near future.
With the perceived risk posed to vital medical equipment by wireless communication being thus diminished, there are opportunities to utilize wireless technology to benefit operating procedures. Thus, there is a need to provide a versatile system for wireless verbal communication between the patient and surgical staff for minimizing communication issues during stimulation device implant procedures and allowing patients to accurately guide their physicians, thus maximizing the benefits of electronic stimulation.